An advert by 1980s kitchen staple Sodastream was pulled from a prime slot on ITV's I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, after being labelled "denigrating" to the bottled drinks industry.

The global ad campaign was due to kick off on Thursday, but the marketing push was put on ice just hours before after Clearcast refused to sanction the advert.

Clearcast told Sodastream that the ad had been canned because "[it] could be seen to tell people not to go to supermarkets and buy soft drinks, and instead help to save the environment by buying a SodaStream".

“We thought it was denigration of the bottled drinks market,” Clearcast wrote.

Fiona Hope, SodaStream UK's managing director, branded the decision as "absurd", adding the company had neither named, nor disparaged any of its competitors in the industry.

“Through the ad, we are simply displaying an alternative way to living more sustainably and illustrating one of our product's benefits – the reduction of plastic bottle wastage," Hope continued.

"The consumer should be allowed to make their own decisions about how to live their lives and the products to chose. This decision appears to put the sensitivities of the world's soft drinks giants ahead of concern for the environment. We will continue to fight this decision with Clearcast and will push to reverse this decision."

Huffington Post UK has obtained the advert, so readers can make up their own mind as to whether Clearcast made the correct decision.

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Should Clearcast have banned the advert?

Earlier this year, SodaStream launched the UK leg of its global environmental campaign, tasking a team of litter pickers in central London to raise awareness of the amount of unwanted plastic bottles sent to landfill every year.

On 17 July, SodaStream launched its inaugural Unbottle the World Day, by showing the number of bottles and cans consumed by an average American family over five years, in New York.

Clearcast approves TV, Video on Demand and Teleshopping ads on behalf of its shareholders and broadcaster clients, ensuring the relevant regulatory codes are met.

Huffington Post UK contacted Clearcast to ask for clarity over its reasons for banning the advertisement - which had already been granted the all clear in Australia, the US and Sweden - it said: "Clearcast was unable to approve the recent SodaStream ad because, in our view, its visual treatment denigrated other soft drinks which put it in breach of the BCAP code (Rule 3.42).

"Environmental issues were not relevant to that decision. In the event of the advertiser presenting us with amended copy we will work closely with them to agree an acceptable treatment."